Thursday, April 10, 2014

My First Quilt: Finding Myself, Finding a Partner

I will
always know when I made my first quilt, because it was 1996, the same year I
met my husband, Tom.I was working for a
Ben Franklin’s Craft Store, if you remember those!There might still be one or two around, and
this one was in Burlington, VT.They had
a bit of everything, and along with learning to frame pictures and work the
customer service desk, I learned to cut fabric.Watercolor quilts were big then, and being an artist at heart they caught
my eye.Even from the start, my quilt
journey was about imagery, color and texture, and I was hooked long before I
sewed my first seam.I bought a book and
an assortment of soft pinkish green florals, not knowing exactly what I’d do
with them.Deciding to start small, I
made myself a square template out of cardboard and cut out a number of medium
sized squares using right-handed scissors in my left hand.I’ve never been able to break that habit.Left-handed scissors were so awful when I was
a kid that I never used them, although when I do a lot of cutting it still
bruises my thumb.

Tom, who
was an artist in his own right, offered input when I asked for it and was
quietly supportive while I experimented.I spent a day arranging the squares on the floor with two cats
underfoot, only to finally discover that the arrangement I liked best was one I
could have strip pieced if I’d known what strip piecing was.The sewing was simple and done on an old used
teal-colored Singer that exactly matched my mother’s and was probably 20+ years
old.I think I paid $25 for it.The borders were as simple as possible.Then I realized that I had no idea how to
actually quilt this little lap-sized piece.Being intimidated by even straight stitching, I finally tied it and
stitched only the borders in the ditch to hold it together.It doesn’t even have a real binding.Instead I sewed the back on top and turned it
right-side out.Now, eighteen years
later, it has held up and still has an occasional place on the couch under a
cat.

My Brown-eyed Susans

My Grandmother's Flowers

Although
my grandmother quilted, I never learned anything about it from her ‘cause
I’m not a Sunbonnet Sue kind of girl myself and hand applique never grabbed me, although I now know enough to have great respect for it.So, I taught myself from books, consulting my new artistic "boyfriend"
along the way.As my interest grew, I
tried several Quilt in a Day books
and made a Trip Around the World bed quilt and several lap and baby quilts for
friends and relatives. They were all still stitched in the ditch.Some of them were pretty Irish Chains and Attic Windows, but it was soon clear that I wanted to do more
artistic things.After a year, we’d
moved from Vermont to Northern California, where there turned out to be the
best quilt shop I’ve even encountered right there in town, the Quilted Angel in
Petaluma.Their shelves were eye candy,
and wearable art was becoming popular.I
promptly stopped piecing squares and tried my hand at machine applique and
vests. (Rosemary Eichorn exhibited at the local quilt show around that time, so I didn't lack for inspiration.) Then I moved on to wall-hangings art quilts, and landscape collage, which is what I’ve
been doing ever since.

As my skills
evolved, so did my relationship with Tom.The quilts became collages based on my love of the wild places that we
explored together.When I discovered
that Tom appreciated stillness and connection to wilderness, I knew I had found
a lifelong partner.My goal in quilting
became to capture that moment of solitude when the viewer feels connected to the natural
world.A moment I could share with Tom. My quilts began to mirror both my past and our
shared adventures, from trips to Hawaii to starting a family.

Remembering Hawaii

Contemplation: My son at age 7

I began to find
my voice as a quilter and artist, while in Tom I found a partner who was
genuinely interested in quilting as an art form and supported my every
step.If it was meaningful to me, he
encouraged me to pursue it, and he only offered critiques when asked.Since he’s got a good eye, his feedback was
always useful.

After a
few years, when we examined how much I was spending on my new hobby, it became clear that it needed to pay for itself.I joined a fiber arts co-op, married Tom, and never looked back.Today, we have become a collage of shared
experience, supporting each others' creative work and choosing a life together
that allows time for art, wilderness, and family.I find that I have made a commitment not just
to our relationship but to myself, to my art quilts and to my own creative
spirit.

Big Trees State Park, Calaveras, CA

I have
made 166 quilts to date, but it all started with one. More
samples of my work can be seen in my etsy store and on my website.

2 comments:

Your quilts are breathtaking! What a lovely tale of the creative path that your craft has taken. Your art draws one in to take a closer look and then another. There are so many delightful details and yet they convey the love with which they were made.

What a great way to find out what you've been doing since we graduated from college. :) I think almost all quilters start with a "first quilt" that could have been put together better, I know my first quilt has just about every mistake in the book. Your artistic visions created in fiber are beautiful, and I look forward to following your progress in the future.